2003 Volume 72 Issue 8 Pages 1027-1032
We propose a new X-ray methodology for direct observations of individual single molecular units in real time and real space. This new system, which we call diffracted X-ray tracking (DXT), monitors the Brownian motion of a single molecular unit by observations of X-ray diffracted spots from a nanocrystal tightly bound to the individual single molecular unit in bio-systems. DXT does not monitor translational motions but monitors orientational ones. One of the advantages of DXT is that it can obtain information about the dynamics of single molecules through a quantitative analysis, since the data from DXT is independent of the chemical conditions. Recently, time-resolved dynamical X-ray observations of individual DNA and myosin molecules with picometer-scale precision were demonstrated using DXT.
